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1 – 10 of 28Selena Ahmed, Carmen Byker Shanks, Martin Lewis, Alicia Leitch, Caitlin Spencer, Erin M. Smith and Dani Hess
Food waste represents a major sustainability challenge with environmental, economic, social and health implications. Institutions of higher education contribute to generating food…
Abstract
Purpose
Food waste represents a major sustainability challenge with environmental, economic, social and health implications. Institutions of higher education contribute to generating food waste while serving as models in championing sustainability solutions. An experiential learning project was implemented as part of two university courses in a buffet-style university dining hall with the objective to reduce food waste while building student capacity to contribute to transformational food system change.
Design/methodology/approach
Partnerships were developed with university dining services. Students were trained to conduct a needs assessment in a university dining hall through food waste measurements. Students were facilitated through the process of applying baseline data on food waste to design, implement and evaluate a multi-component food waste intervention that consisted of offering reduced portion sizes, use of smaller serving utensils and educational messaging. Participant reflections were elicited to evaluate the effectiveness of the experiential learning experience.
Findings
The food waste intervention led to a 17 per cent reduction in total food waste, with a large portion of waste attributed to post-consumer plate waste. While the reduction in food waste was not statistically significant, it highlights the potential for food service operations to address food waste through reduction techniques while providing students an experiential opportunity that meets multiple learning objectives including systems thinking, collaboration and motivation for leading change in the food system.
Originality/value
This study highlights the opportunity of building student capacity to address sustainability challenges through an experiential learning model for reducing food waste in an institutional setting that other educators can adapt.
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By exploring the unique networks of parents, this paper attempts to shed light on the assumptions of social capital theory, showing the advantages of combining bonding and…
Abstract
Purpose
By exploring the unique networks of parents, this paper attempts to shed light on the assumptions of social capital theory, showing the advantages of combining bonding and bridging social capital for educational entrepreneurship.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper focuses on a group of Israeli parents who founded a new school. Data collection and analysis were based on the grounded theory perspective. In total, 20 in‐depth interviews were conducted. Triangulation was achieved by studying the phenomenon from different perspectives: those of the founders, school employees, and people who supported the founding of the school. The data were analyzed using categorization techniques.
Findings
The paper finds that bonding and bridging social capital complemented each other. Whereas the former was employed to take advantage of existing opportunities in the community, the latter was used to explore new opportunities that would otherwise not be available. Moreover, it was found that both strong and weak ties may be used by parents to obtain scarce resources. The study shows that parents with cultural capital know the “rules of the game” and can therefore take advantage of network opportunities to ensure the school's survival.
Originality/value
This paper reframes parental involvement, using social capital as a theoretical perspective. From this perspective, it uncovers the deeper aspects of the network dynamics and unique circumstances created when bonding and bridging social capital are combined.
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This paper aims to explore the contrast between stable and dynamic labour markets in academe in light of career theories that were originally developed for business environments.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the contrast between stable and dynamic labour markets in academe in light of career theories that were originally developed for business environments.
Design/methodology/approach
A conceptual design, offering the eco‐system as a framework.
Findings
It evaluates their relevance and applicability to dynamic and global academic labour markets using the emerging novel eco‐system theory. Lessons are drawn for individual scholars employed in the higher education sector as well as to institutions.
Practical implications
The paper suggests practical indications for people‐management within academe. It integrates human capital theory, psychological‐contract concepts and career perspectives about people‐management with practical career advice for the sector.
Originality/value
The paper offers a conceptual framework to better understand labour markets, in particular academic labour markets, using eco‐system as a strong explanatory power.
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Zahid Hussain, Abdul Jabbar and Kai Kong
The purpose of this paper is to expose the playout of power dynamics when a new business intelligence (BI) system is implemented in a central pharmacy department in a National…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to expose the playout of power dynamics when a new business intelligence (BI) system is implemented in a central pharmacy department in a National Health Service (NHS) hospital. The authors aim to explore the assumptions, experiences and actions of organisational stakeholders and ascertain how different professional groups obtain influence, power and control during this process.
Design/methodology/approach
In this research the authors employ structuration theory (ST), to establish how and where domination is achieved. To achieve this, the authors investigate the production and reproduction of structure as part of a longitudinal assessment using interviews and questionnaires.
Findings
Constant renewal and evolution are crucial in the implementation of a BI system. During the process of implementation and change many stakeholders resent the change. Disempowering these users leads to new power structures led by BI analysts.
Practical implications
The findings from this paper can help strengthen implications of BI systems implementation and better understand the impact these systems have on wider stakeholders. With coherent communication and an engaged attitude new BI systems can be implemented without alienating the key user stakeholders.
Originality/value
This paper differs from other papers by advocating that new systems and processes alter individual power structures in organisations, disrupting internal dynamics and introducing new aspects of control and dominance.
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The visibility and impact of young activists is evident in 2020 more than ever, most clearly in the Black Lives Matter movement, but also among climate strikers, water protectors…
Abstract
The visibility and impact of young activists is evident in 2020 more than ever, most clearly in the Black Lives Matter movement, but also among climate strikers, water protectors, March for Our Lives organizers, and even TikTok users and K-pop music fans. The ambivalence with which adults have responded – from pride to dismissal to demonization – has its roots in implicit yet pervasive assumptions about young people stretching back to the early nineteenth century. Through a brief historical sketch, I demonstrate that the contemporary concept of the “American teenager” is the product of a series of social, economic, and political changes in the United States and that this concept undermines youth activism and gives license to adults to dismiss young peoples' justified anger at injustice. This essay contends that adultism, and specifically ephebiphobia – the fear and loathing of young people – dominates today's cultural perceptions of youth in the United States and contributes to policies in education and law enforcement that have domesticated and criminalized young people, undermining their political power. Understanding of the historical factors that shape adults' attitudes toward young peoples' capabilities as activists is a first step to improving and sustaining collaboration between youth and adults in social movements.
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The major goals of this paper are twofold: first, it aims to explore the link between social capital (structural, relational and cognitive) and the exploitative and explorative…
Abstract
Purpose
The major goals of this paper are twofold: first, it aims to explore the link between social capital (structural, relational and cognitive) and the exploitative and explorative capabilities; second, to examine the influence of exploitative and explorative capabilities on international performance.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is conceptual in nature and relies on a conceptual model that builds on and synthesizes the theoretical foundations of social capital (structural, relational and cognitive), dynamic capabilities and international performance.
Findings
A useful framework for further research in the social network field and dynamic capabilities is presented. In order to build new dynamic capabilities to cope with turbulent and unpredictable markets, small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) need to leverage their network relationships that provide access to novel sources of information. These dynamic capabilities may in turn positively influence international performance.
Practical implications
The paper may assist other researchers with a different template of possible relationships that can better explain international performance.
Originality/value
This paper responds to calls for theoretical claims based on a comprehensive distinction of how a social network perspective based on social capital is an important condition for the development of dynamic capabilities of a firm's internationalisation.
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Sheng Huang, Guangyu Ye and Suqin Shen
In the literature concerning international new ventures (INVs), there has been a tension between the learning advantages of newness and absorptive capacity perspectives for…
Abstract
Purpose
In the literature concerning international new ventures (INVs), there has been a tension between the learning advantages of newness and absorptive capacity perspectives for explaining the performance influence of initial entry speed. To address this tension, this paper, through integrating both the motivation and ability to acquire foreign knowledge, proposes a theoretical model about the nonlinear relationship between INVs’ initial entry speed and international performance. Drawing upon upper echelons theory and the institution-based view, this study aims to extend the literature by developing two boundary conditions for this relationship: the moderating role of executives’ individual learning orientation and sub-national institutions.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used the latent moderated structural equations approach specific to Mplus to test the hypotheses with data on 322 Chinese INVs.
Findings
The findings indicate that INVs’ international performance will increase initially and then decrease, as they accelerate initial entry speed (an inverted U-shaped relationship), and that INVs managed by executives with a higher learning orientation and located in better sub-national institutional environments achieve greater international growth gains from moderate initial entry speed.
Originality/value
This study mainly makes contributions to the INV literature by integrating the motivation and ability to acquire foreign knowledge to offer full understanding of the effect of initial entry speed on international performance, and by elaborating on the moderating effects of executives’ individual learning orientation and sub-national institutions on this relationship.
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Frank Siedlok, Paul Hibbert and Fiona Whitehurst
The purpose of this paper is to develop a more detailed understanding of how embedding in different social networks relates to different types of action that individuals choose in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop a more detailed understanding of how embedding in different social networks relates to different types of action that individuals choose in the context of organizational closures, downsizing or relocations. To develop such insights, this paper focuses on three particular types of social networks, namely, intra-organizational; external professional and local community networks. These three types of networks have been frequently related to different types of action in the context of closures and relocations.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a conceptual paper. The authors develop the argument by integrating relevant recent literature on the salience related to embedding in different types of social networks, with a particular focus on responses to organizational closure or relocation.
Findings
The authors argue that at times of industrial decline and closure: embeddedness in intra-organizational networks can favor collective direct action; embeddedness in professional networks is likely to favor individual direct action and embeddedness in community networks can lead to individual indirect action. The authors then add nuance to the argument by considering a range of complicating factors that can constrain or enable the course (s) of action favored by particular combinations of network influences.
Originality/value
On a theoretical level, this paper adds to understandings of the role of network embeddedness in influencing individual and collective responses to such disruptive events; and direct or indirect forms of response. On a practical level, the authors contribute to understandings about how the employment landscape may evolve in regions affected by organizational demise, and how policymakers may study with or through network influences to develop more responsible downsizing approaches.
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